Chapter 4: He Is What?

While these adventures were happening, other clandestine events were taking place. Lind had them sit down in the living room and she said, "I arranged everything for him. I was the one behind getting the school to open that wing and give those people a free ride, just so I could get Ian here, and to meet you. I was the one that got him stuck here. The reason is this: he is more than what you see, and what he knows."

Of course, Urd and Belldandy had no idea what that meant, but Lind was quick to add to her tale, saying, "Um…I think you know how all of us Valkyrie came to be, right?"

They nodded, and Lind said, "I know this may seem a touch personal, but, you know how you and Belldandy do not share the same mother, right?"

They again nodded, and then Lind said, "Well, father does have a wandering eye…"

"Heh…the only one he has left!" joked Urd, to which Lind just gave a smirk and said, "Nonetheless, in rare instances…from time to time…his attention has been turned to human women."

They both sighed, knowing this was true, and Lind said, "Of course, you know what emerges from that, right?"

Suddenly, Urd put two and two together quickly, while Belldandy started to say, "Well I remember Sigmund, and then his son Siegfried, who had that blood flowing in his…" and then she stopped, suddenly coming across, somewhat, the same thing Urd realized, and said, "He did it again, did he not?"

"About 18 earth years ago," stated Lind, to which Belldandy said, "And that is about the same age as…wait...you do not mean…"

"Yep," stated Lind, "He ate your food, slept in your house, and already started to affect your lives for the better."

"Oh dear," gasped Belldandy, "Does he know?"

"Not yet," said Lind, "And that is a concern."

Urd just shrugged and said, "So what? It's not like times past, where such a hero was needed. That was usually father's intent anyway when he did things like this. Why tell Ian now?"

Lind shook her head, as did Belldandy, and the latter said, "You do not understand, Urd: he must be told. There is a grave danger in not telling him."

"Like what?" asked Urd, genuinely curious.

Belldandy looked worried that Urd did not understand, and she said, "When an avatar comes into the world like this, at some point, he will begin to develop powers and superhuman abilities that he knows not he possesses."

Lind added, "Normally, this hits earlier, but he appears to be a late bloomer. Even now, things are happening, he has already developed wisdom similar to father's, and you caught a taste of that last night. He is a physical specimen, and he thinks it was just because he worked out in the gym. However, you saw Keiichi with his bag. The truth is, a couple of weeks ago, with the amount of things he put into that bag; even Ian would have had trouble with that. He will soon start to develop supernatural abilities he knows nothing about, and that is a grave danger to him and all those around you."

Urd started to figure out more, and she said, "I can see how this could be a danger to others, but how is it to himself?"

"He may go insane from what is happening to him," answered Belldandy, "and if that happens, he may do things way out of control, and that jeopardizes everything!"

"Besides all that," added Lind, "Mara has been stirring again, and you know what that means. If he can be taught and trained, he can help you counter her. If not, and Mara finds out, well… Can you imagine what things would be like if she taught him?"

"Oh, perish the thought!" exclaimed Belldandy, "Are you to train him?"

"Yes, most definitely," answered Lind, but Urd cut in and said, "Where do we play in? Why would all this matter to us? You could have done this in his home, and that would have been that."

Belldandy smiled in her gentle way and said, "Do you not understand, sister? Even though he was born here on earth, and his mother is human… Do you not see?"

Just as it was dawning on Urd, Belldandy voiced her thoughts by saying, "He is our brother!"

"He needs all the help he can get, and father figured that you three would want a hand in this," added Lind, to which Belldandy quickly said, "We shall most certainly aid you!"

Lind nodded and said, "The first thing that needs to happen is he has to live with you, because, when things happen, you can subdue him if things happen before all can be explained to him. Second, once he understands, I will make an offer to him. It will not be an ordinary contract, because it will not be based on a wish, but his choice of whether or not to become another of father's hand in this world."

"Would a contract like that work?" asked Urd.

"He is human enough to where it would," answered Lind, "That means he could still die like a human, but he would be a very hard kill…well…if his power is not inhibited, he is immortal. That brings up my third point. Whether or not he accepts, he still has to know, and be made to wear the same kind of inhibitors that Belldandy uses."

"Why?" asked Urd.

"It is simple," said Belldandy, "If he chooses to live as a human, he has to be open to fate just like anyone else. It would not be right for him to have anything further. Also, if he chooses to live as a human, the things about him that would actually be something that he would not have to try to use, like his strength, for example, could cause him problems."

"Furthermore," added Lind, "If he does accept, he must understand that the use of his abilities can only be when he needs to use them. Because he still has a human half, there would be the weakness of the human mind that may cause him to abuse what he can do."

"Would it dampen his wisdom?" asked Urd.

"No," responded Lind, "The inhibitors only block his powers and anything about him that is enhanced physically. His mind is his mind."

Belldandy stepped in and said, "I wear them because, as you know, I would wield too much power for this world to be able to handle. It is only in the direst emergencies that father would even allow me to take them off. I have known that you must think I think them a burden, but I do not. I understand their need, and thus I understand the need for Ian."

She then looked at Lind and said, "Oh, please, let us help. I would be more than happy to welcome him into our family."

Lind smiled and said, "He thinks I am his sponsor for school, so I must head over there now to meet him and get him signed up for his courses. Take care of getting him to live here first, and we shall go from there."

They nodded, and she took her leave, leaving the pair to ponder what to do next.

During their car trip, Megumi just had to pick his mind and she had to ask, "You know, I've always thought that belief in a god was merely an excuse to trying to explain the unknown and not making an effort to know other things."

"Not really," answered Ian, "Even Kant—an agnostic—said there were some things that have to be taken by faith."

"Bah…proof is where it is at."

"Again, I have to go to Kant. What you are saying is that if you do not possess knowledge about something, then it is not true."

"Wait…that's not right. I know that there are things I don't know that others do."

"Well then, does it make those things false?"

"Um…no…"

"Then, if you see evidence of their knowledge without knowledge yourself or proofs, then you have to take it on faith that what they say or believe has to have some truth to it. Faith sits somewhere between hypothesis and theory. It's less than theory because you don't have at least two sold proofs for yourself, but higher than an educated guess, in that, there is more substance than that. This is real faith."

Megumi was thrown for a loop, because she had never been taught to look at things in this way. Ian then said, "Then you have Thomas Aquinas."

"Wait," she said, "I've heard of him. I really don't know his axioms, but I have heard some say that three are essentially the same argument, the fourth is irrelevant, and the fifth is not really necessary."

"Richard Dawkins, right?"

She nodded, and Ian said, "He is an idiot!"

She looked at him with some surprise and said, "Certainly, with what you already know about psychology, you would think…"

"Even Albert Einstein—a man who history considers the smartest man that ever lived—was not about to cut God out of the picture. Even he said, 'God does not play dice with the universe', meaning that even he understood that things were far too ordered to not have a higher, transcendent hand behind it all. I never knew to what he adhered…maybe Judaism…but he at least believed there was a being that transcended even the laws of nature you engineers study so well. If he is a god, he would have that ability."

She had to concede that point, and she said, "Well, could you explain his ideas?"

"I can do it very concisely, and use some of your science to aid in this. Okay, first there is the argument of the unmoved mover. Even Newton knew that an object does not go into motion until it was set into motion by an outside force, normally some other object. Well, that object had to be in motion as well, which means that something had to set that into motion, and so on. Logic would dictate that this could not go on forever, and there had to be something or being that set everything else into motion, himself not moved by any other force than himself. Because he is transcendent of natural laws, because he created them, that means no other force set him into motion, though he moves, making him an infinite being able to be beyond natural laws. That being people call God."

"Well…I guess that makes sense."

"Oh, then you'll like the next point, and that is the argument of first cause. As you know, physics, for centuries, have said that matter is neither created nor destroyed, but changes its state. Well, quantum mechanics, and, again, Albert Einstein and his contemporaries began to show that there might be slight holes in that. In their observations of the universe, they have discovered the existence of antimatter, (for example, when they found the antimatter of the electron called the positron,) and what happens when matter meets its antimatter counterpart. Both annihilate each other on contact. It could well be that there is a whole universe parallel to our own made completely of antimatter, and subject to the same laws as our own, but because of how destructive the two are, something keeps them from meeting as a whole, and ne'er shall the twain meet. This spills into the fifth argument, but I'll explain that in a moment. In any case, because matter can cease to exist because of contact with antimatter, then that means there is the possibility that matter may never have existed at one time, because there is a phenomenon where it can cease to be. If that is the case and if we add in the fact that it is well known that matter just does not spontaneously appear or create itself, then nothing would exist that does exist. If matter could create itself, then it would have had to exist before itself, making it something that was infinite. Thus, a being that was so infinite would have had to create everything else, or else nothing would, for the mere possibility that there may have been a time where matter did not exist. That being people call God."

Now, Megumi was riveted on what he was saying. She never knew that science and philosophy could mix like that, and all he said was completely logical. However, she did say, "I would not say that that is definitive proof, though."

"Well, maybe not, but this does go beyond an educated guess, and I think it starts to seep into faith."

That, she could not argue down, and she started to remember what Descartes taught about science and knowledge, and how, because of him, mankind has a better handle on knowledge than they ever would have had without him. She then said, "What's the third thing?"

"That is the argument of contingency. Because it can be seen that an infinite being had to be behind it, we also have to accept that this being has a reasoning mind, because, without that, there would be no need for the universe to exist at all. Outside the rational will of another, there can be given no argument that nothing has a need to exist that does exist. Thus, existence is contingent upon the will of another, much higher, being, and that being people call God."

That made sold sense to Megumi, and Ian continued without a response, knowing that she was putting it together. He then said, "Then there is the ability to make judgment calls on things. When you look at certain things like fire, a lamp, and other sources of light and heat, we make measurements on how more or less hot they are. However, in order to come to this point, man has come to realize that there has to be some kind of an ultimate standard in either direction against which to gauge those kinds of heat. We have determined that the ultimate example of brightness and heat is the sun, and the other extreme—the complete lack of heat—as absolute zero, where molecular structure completely collapses. We measure 'hotter' against what we gauge as 'hottest'. This, we do with everything in science and nature, and even in moral and ethical judgment. However, in measuring good and bad, for example, both have to be measured against something better than both are. Since that thing or being cannot be something arbitrary, then they have to be measured against the best thing. This being people call God. Finally, there is the argument of governance. As Einstein already knew, there is too much order for things to be the way they are. Even the second universal law of thermodynamics states that everything goes from order to chaos, and not the other way around. Again, there has to be something keeping all kinds of matter and antimatter reactions from taking place, else the universe would annihilate itself. You said you had a motorcycle."

"I'm the cycle queen in school!" she announced proudly.

Ian then said, "Then, imagine me dismantling your bike down to its most basic parts, throwing them all into a waterproof sack—because I am including the liquids that the bike may possess—shaking up the whole thing, and then dumping out the contents. What are the odds that they will all, not only land as a fully assembled cycle, but work to perfection?"

She laughed and said, "That would never happen."

"Then, let me ask you: are you not saying in an atheistic view of science that this is how the universe operates, and came to be if there was a chance it never was at one time? Does not that violate the laws of science that everyone knows is true? It is not the second universal theory or hypothesis of thermodynamics, or even suggestion, but it is the LAW of that. That means that it has been tested in so many different ways that there is never a way that the end result of it would ever be different."

Megumi was now at a loss. For years, her teachers and other influences in the field told her, no, insisted in the strongest terms that there was no God. She even had discounted those arguments because someone with some doctorate who she now realized cared more about fame than science told her to do so. Now she had to question it. Yet, Ian then said, "I would not expect you to be convinced that there is a god running the show, but, what I would challenge you to do is become like Descartes and operate methodological skepticism when it comes to science, and just do not take someone else's word for it because he seems to be more important than you. You have the right to question it and find out for yourself."

She then reasoned, "But, doesn't religion teach that you must follow them without question?"

"Well, many have abused religion that way," answered Ian, "Yet, I have to believe that knowing God can go beyond some ritual. I do believe that, if that God made us, he wants to get to know us better, and help make it easier for us to do so without banging our heads against the proverbial wall. Maybe, one day, I can lock down on one thing and meet this Grand Designer, and not just believe in him in a vague way."

What neither realized was that Yogdrasil was showing the whole thing to Lind, and that made her happier, because she knew that, if introduced to things in the right way, he just might embrace what he is, because he has a connection to her realm in ways he never would have thought possible. Once at the campus, Megumi smiled and said, "Thank you…you are the first person in a long time that made me really think. I hope we can meet again. Maybe I can get you back to your stuff after?"

"Sure," he said, "If there is a common area with soda machines and such, meet me there, okay?"

"Sure," she said, gleefully, and she wished him luck and headed out. However, she began to wonder why she was excited to see him again. What was it about him?

Lind was soon there, and she gave him a kind embrace as she welcomed him. She toured him over the campus, but that was only for the purpose of making sure he could not get to the office that gave dorms to those that wished them. She then took him to where he could sign up for classes and he signed up for a standard 15-credit load three days a week. She also brought him to the office of the hockey club, and because of his experience, size, and knowledge of how the game was played in North America; they were more than willing to bring him aboard. However, when he went to the residence office, he was indeed saddened that they could not give him a room. He sighed, but Lind then said, "Say, you could always ask those who you stayed with last night to let you stay again?"

"Mmm...Nah," he answered, "I can't do that to them. They have done so much already."

"You could always try," she answered, "And if they cannot, you could always ask Megumi to help you find a hotel."

"That's true," he finally reasoned, "Besides, the worst they could say is 'no', right?"

She smiled and nodded, and then said, "Say, wouldn't you like to tell your mother how things are going?"

"That would be great…but I don't have…"

As if to anticipate his question, she whipped out a cell phone that bore the same marks as his laptop, (helping him to assume that what he had came from a normal company,) and he called home. After a few rings, the answer came, "Hello?"

"Hi, Mom!" he answered happily.

"Baby!" she said, and he asked, "Did I wake you?"

"No, I've been up for a while."

He was not sure what the time difference would be, but what he did not realize was that Yogdrasil was handling the call, and it was actually sending it at a time when she would normally be up. He told her of all that happened and who he had met. When Dorothy heard the names of whom he met, her eyes widened, and she said, "Baby, trust me: you have to get to know them better. Call it a gut feeling, but for some reason, (that she knew all too well,) I have to believe they will be the best people you ever met."

"Wow, mom!" he answered, "I never heard you react like that before."

She tried to play it off and said, "Don't worry honey, because I can just see your Irish side of luck kicking in. The way things have been going for you, they have to be an omen."

After a bit longer, he finally said, "Well, I think I need to get going, because I am using someone else's minutes. I'll call you once I am settled in. I love you."

"Love ya," she answered, and then said, "Call soon, bye!"

After he hung up, he handed the phone back to Lind just as Megumi approached. Lind then said, "Your first classes happen the day after tomorrow, so that may give you chance to find residence tomorrow. Well, I'll meet you then, and get you started. After that, you're on your own, kid!"

She winked playfully and took her leave as Megumi approached.

Once in the car, he told her of his day, and she said, "That's a bummer about the dorm room. Well, knowing Belldandy, she'd have a fit if you didn't stay."

"I've been such a pest."

"Believe me; she would never see it that way."

"How'd it go for you?"

"You know, for the most part, everything was normal, but I have this one professor that is a touch arrogant. He expects direct adherence to his teaching, though I have seen holes in it."

"What happened?"

"Well, he started to spew his rhetoric, but then I asked a simple question that I did not realize could have unraveled all he had just said, and he went off on me! He went into a tirade on the matter and insisted that he was right. After class, everyone told me that that was the first time anyone ever stood up to him."

Ian nodded, knowing now she had more proof of what he had said, and he told her, "Well, be careful. If you press too hard, you may be tossed from the class. The best way to challenge him is in reports that are so public and concise that, if he went after you, he would know he would look like a fool. He may not give you a high grade out of spite, but he would be a fool not to pass you, which means you would have to be stellar on your other classes for it not to drag you down."

She nodded and said, "I'll keep that in mind."

Once at the temple, Ian came in with Megumi, and she explained his plight. Belldandy was more than happy for him to stay, and in fact, almost forced him to do so. She would wait until the next day to present him with the offer, for she did not want to do so without Keiichi both knowing and approving. After dinner, some more singing, and him going to bed, Keiichi walked in holding Skuld in his arms, contentedly asleep, with her head, and arms cuddled to his chest. He had the bag of plush toys, and the big one, slung across his back, and Belldandy smiled broadly. "I take it things went well?" she asked.

"More than you realize," said Keiichi, and at that moment, Skuld began to groan and mumble a bit, and weakly said, "Where are we, big brother?"

Belldandy wanted to shout, but kept calm at hearing that, and Keiichi said, "We're back at the temple."

She started to stir in such a fashion indicating that she wanted to be let down, and he did so. She hugged him, hugged Belldandy, took her toys, and said, "Banpei, could you come to my room, please?"

He nodded and obediently followed. She then said, "Good night…I love you both."

A couple of tears streamed down Belldandy's face, and she turned to face a happy Keiichi. He then took her hands into his and said, "I love you so much."

With that, he kissed her. It was not much more than a peck, but Belldandy stiffened in surprise. She almost expected to see Banpei come crashing through the door to clobber Keiichi, and she looked back, but nothing happened. She looked back to Keiichi, who said, "No, its okay. We've come to an understanding."

With that, they stared lovingly into each other's eyes and slowly met their lips in a passionate kiss. They stayed this way for a good thirty seconds, getting closer and closer, and that was when Keiichi brought his finger between their mouths. He then said, "Part of the deal was things don't go further than this unless we do ever decide to tie the knot. Besides, I think this is fine, because, well, I don't think it needs to go there to show how much we love each other. I think we do that well enough."

That is when there was a light snoring from the guest room from Ian, and after what she had learned on that day, she realized that it would be better if they waited, because she knew what their offspring would be. It would not be a bad thing, but in a family situation, it would be better, because their child would never have to face what Ian had. She would never wish that on anyone. Yet, she did say, "We will be tempted to…"

"I think we can handle it," Keiichi said, "and sleeping separate still will help. Only if we can handle it would we ever lay side by side. If it comes to that point, we can help Skuld understand."

Belldandy nodded, and embraced him tightly, saying, "You don't know how long I've waited for this moment!"

"It's going to be better," he answered, "I just know it. Besides, the contract that would then be formed would be more solid, because it would be bound both here and in heaven."

Keiichi heard the snoring this time, and he said, "Who's that?"

"Oh, that's Ian. He needed a place again, but…well..."

She became a bit more serious, and she said, "Come to the living room, because we need to talk."

"I don't understand."

"Well, Urd and I just found out today that he is our brother."

He now stared wide-eyed at her, and she said, "Come, and I shall explain."

6